When I haul on the backcast I know I need to "wait" for the line to draw my hand back toward the reel, but sometimes I never get this pressure. Is this due to not enough "stop" on the backcast and just not enough power?

Most people need quite a bit of line out to get the feel for feeding the line back. The added mass of more line helps but should be coupled with enough line speed in a straight line path to really have the line want to feed back.
Also, make sure your line is clean and slick or you might never get it to feed back!